Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July of 1918. He was South Africa’s eleventh president. He is called Mukluk by South Africans which means grandfather. Mandela’s actual name is Rolihlahla. Nelson Mandela is the name given to him by his school teacher because she had trouble in calling his actual name. Mandela start going to school at the age of 7. He was the first one of his family who went to school. He got his primary education from the local Missionary school. He matriculated from a Wesleyan secondary school. After completing his matriculation he then got enrolled in University College of Fort Hare for his Bachelors of Arts degree. Later on he went to Johannesburg for LLB. He joined African National Congress in 1942 while studying at Johannesburg. At the time of the Second World War a small group of young members of African National Congress banded together. Nelson Mandela was one of those young people. They started a dreadful struggle of transforming the ANC into a mass movement. Their main conflict was that the political strategies of the leaders of the ANC are inadequate for the national liberation. Mandela impressed his group fellows by his efforts and work and was elected as a Secretary of Youth League in 1947. In early 50s he played a vital role in the introduction of Bantu education. Mandela played very important part in popularizing the freedom charter that is adopted by congress in 1950. Mandela put a lot of effort in the struggle against the labor exploitation. During the whole of the fifties, Mandela had to face various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned several times.

Nelson Mandela spent a long time period of his life behind the bars. During his years in prison his reputation grew widely. He became the most significant black leader in South Africa with time. He always refused to compromise his political position for obtaining freedom. He has being forced to remain away from his family; he has to move place to place in order to evade detection by government. But he didn’t step back in spite of all these troubles. Nelson Mandela has never fluttered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. He never answered racial discrimination with racism. His life has been a source of inspiration, in South Africa as well as throughout the world.